Help with halogen replacement...

[fullairtime]

I have a 2007 International that is filled with halogen lights. Some are in-set into the ceiling and some are "hockey puck" mounts. So far, 7 have burned out and I still cannot figure out how to open the fixtures in order to replace the bulbs.
I have tried turning (as to un-screw), pushing to see if something will pop back out, and even looked for a nitch that could be pryed off with a screwdriver.

This cannot be rocket science- what am I missing here?
Thanks

[Al - K4GLU]

7 bulbs burnt out in a 2007 already? I have one that went - and I'm fulltime - and I gave it a whack and it come back on - likely a bad ground. Suggest you try this. It can't hurt.

[TBRich]

Are you referring to the inset halogen light fixtures? If so, the inner-most silver ring (next to the glass lens) will pop out if you use a sharp knife under the outer edge of that ring to pry it up...this ring holds the lens... the ring with the lens will pop out...just be careful not to scratch the surrounding metal, and be careful that when it comes out it doesn't fall or the lens could break... This give you access to the bulb, which you can then replace... When you replace the halogen bulbs do not handle them with your bare fingers because the body oil will reduce their life... When you re-install the lens ring, the insert collar of the ring has notches that straddle the cross bars inside the fixture...just align those and pop it back in putting pressure on the ring (not the lens)..

Good luck!

[TBRich]

This is the fixture I am referring to in the my last post for removing the lens & ring to replace the light.

[Foiled Again]

TBRich has it right, pry up the inside ring. I use a small jeweler's screwdriver. When you're putting the ring back on after replacing the bulb you'll need to align it correctly. It has to fit around the two reflector mounts on each side of the bulb.

Paula

[2dabeach]

TBRich

I want to pick up some spare bulbs for the hockey puck lights. Do you know what wattage the bulbs are?

[2dabeach]

Originally Posted by fullairtime

I have a 2007 International that is filled with halogen lights. Some are in-set into the ceiling and some are "hockey puck" mounts. So far, 7 have burned out and I still cannot figure out how to open the fixtures in order to replace the bulbs.
I have tried turning (as to un-screw), pushing to see if something will pop back out, and even looked for a nitch that could be pryed off with a screwdriver.

This cannot be rocket science- what am I missing here?
Thanks

fullairtime.... I have a 2007 with 15 ceiling and 5 spots with those bulbs and have not replaced any after spending two full winters living in my unit in Florida. The bulbs may be burning out prematurly due to the voltage being too high. You may want to check the voltage being supplied on the 12volt DC side of your Power Center. The Parallax Power Center in my trailer is suppose to start out at 14 volts and drop to 13.5 volts after 13 hours on shore power. If your getting significantly more voltage, you may want to check with the manufacturer of your power supply.

[Al - K4GLU]

The bulbs are 10W but PLEASe stop calling them Puck Lights. Puck Lights are those stick on lights that look just like a hockey puck and that is not what the lights in the Airstream are. Think they're called Aircraft Lights.

[TBRich]

10 watt halogens is correct. As a side note, we are replacing the halogens with LEDs...in fact the picture of the light in post #4 has had the halogen bulb replaced with an LED bulb (a direct replacement). You can sorta make out the 12 LED array through the lens...we've done the forward part of our Bambi at this point and plan to do the other half soon....we've also replaced the reading spots with LEDs...the light is softer, the power usage is minimal by comparison, and they put out very little heat....you can look right at the light without seeing spots before your eyes for the next ten minutes, and the lens is only slightly warm to the touch rather than hot with halogen bulbs. We've chosen "cool" white LEDs as opposed to "warm" white, which is a personal preference. (The halogens put out a warm light.) We felt the halogens were too bright and way too hot...the change took some geting used to, but we are very pleased with them.

[TIMEMACHINE]

There have been many threads regarding LED replacements of halogen lamps, especially in the International and Safari SE models. This thread seems fairly current so I will post here. I have tried a few LED G4 lamps, most with marginal success. In my pursuit of a better LED lamp, I came across Nexxus brand products in another market and saw that they just introduced a new G4 replacement for the 10 watt halogen that consumes only 1.2 watts and puts out between 85 and 95 lumens. I don't know if they will fit in the recessed lamps on the Airstreams, if they do, they would be the highest efficiency LED lamps I have found. I have attached the link to the specification sheet. Personally, I would choose the neutral white for our Safari SE, and if I had an International, I would go with the cool white.

Just another option to try. I have used other Nexxus product and find the quality to be very good.

[Gene]

After reading through 3 threads on LED's, it's pretty confusing. Last we heard, back last summer Westfalia was happy with LED's ("LED lighting retrofit for interior lights" is the name of that thread), yet it appears others aren't happy with LED's. I have heard LED's are too hot and they aren't. Colors are good and aren't. Cost is high and it's higher. QC on LED's may be bad. The technology is advancing fast and I'm sure LED's will be what replaces old fashioned bulbs, but I'm not sure we are there yet.

So, I have one LED fixture, sent to me by the factory to try out, and probably one of the ones they gave up on, that has a blue cast and less lumens. I put it in the center of the three recessed lamps in front of the hanging cabinet over the dinette table. It, at least, reduces the intense light from the recessed halogens by maybe 5%. Today I realized the cheapo fixtures (bathroom, shower, one over table, wardrobe, one over kitchen counter) have not halogen, but ancient 1141 bulbs. I just never thought about it before.

So, my questions are:

1. What is available to replace the 1141's with either halogens or LED's or something else? Cost? Light quality?

2. I have thought of wiring a rheostat into the recessed lighting circuit—kind of a pain because I have to get into the box for the switch and then splice in wires to a separate rheostat and mount it in the sink cabinet. Not a good working space, but it looks doable. Has anyone tried this? I used to understand rheostats better but have never been sure whether they actually reduce power usage or just convert it to heat. Where would I get a 12v rheostat? An auto parts store?

3. Anything newer on LED's for the recessed ceiling lights with good color rendition and at a reasonable cost? What I would like is something a little less bright, but not dim as there are times you need to see.

By the way, in the relentless pursuit of reducing power usage, note that the subwoofers in newer models are always powered. I doubt they take much amps when the sound system is not being used—my multimeter doesn't measure DC amps, so I couldn't check—but I just wired in a switch to turn the thing off. I thought it would be an easy job, but the instructions with the strange switch I got at the auto parts place made no sense, I kept blowing fuses, and otherwise made the job difficult for myself. Perhaps wiring is not something for January. But it's done! One more watt saved!

Gene

[wheel interested]

Originally Posted by TBRich

Are you referring to the inset halogen light fixtures? If so, the inner-most silver ring (next to the glass lens) will pop out if you use a sharp knife under the outer edge of that ring to pry it up...this ring holds the lens... the ring with the lens will pop out...just be careful not to scratch the surrounding metal, and be careful that when it comes out it doesn't fall or the lens could break... This give you access to the bulb, which you can then replace... When you replace the halogen bulbs do not handle them with your bare fingers because the body oil will reduce their life... When you re-install the lens ring, the insert collar of the ring has notches that straddle the cross bars inside the fixture...just align those and pop it back in putting pressure on the ring (not the lens)..

Good luck!

Originally Posted by Foiled Again

TBRich has it right, pry up the inside ring. I use a small jeweler's screwdriver. When you're putting the ring back on after replacing the bulb you'll need to align it correctly. It has to fit around the two reflector mounts on each side of the bulb.

Paula

Thank you TB Rich and Paula! I have been putting off changing my bulb for forever. The directions from both of you had me confident and successful.

[ROBERT CROSS]

We used these.... Choose your preference...bright,warm number of LED's.

In this....

Bob
🇺🇦🇺🇸🇺🇦

[Dan@LED4RV]

Originally Posted by wheel interested

Thank you TB Rich and Paula! I have been putting off changing my bulb for forever. The directions from both of you had me confident and successful.

[wheel interested]

Love the picture for assistance! Thanks. I am just back to review these directions and replace now only the third ever bulb since 2007. I wore plastic gloves, that pandemic was good for stocking those. (erm)